| John R. Pierce My e-mail address: johnrpierce@yahoo.com |
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| According to an article in Spanish in the Argentine newspaper La Nación, Sony will be releasing in June or July a recording of Italian soft pop with Marcelo Alvarez, Salvatore Licitra, chorus, and orchestra. |
| "The only participant who seemed to be dwelling deep inside Berlioz's world was Lorraine Hunt Lieberson; as the love-drunk Dido, she delivered a tour de force of style and emotion. She is the closest thing we have to a Callas—an artist of supreme intelligence who is also a transfixing presence onstage." --from a review by Alex Ross in The New Yorker of March 3, 2003, of Les Troyens at the Metropolitan Opera. |
| "The Austrian baritone was so deeply immersed in the dark emotions of the haunting song cycle [Schubert's Winterreise] that he seemed capable of acting on the death wish threaded through the piece. A stunning example of artistry that goes beyond insightful interpretation, his singing embodied the meaning of the words and music."--from a review by Wilma Salisbury in the Cleveland Plain Dealer about a Winterreise recital by Wolfgang Holzmair on February 26, 2003. |
| Countertenor Andreas Scholl "has a great interest in pop music - with . . . perhaps an album coming up," reports an article at theage.com. |
| The Boston Ballet will perform 16 fewer times next season, 44 dates, down from 60 this season. Also, the Wang Center's balcony will be closed during productions, according to the Boston Globe of March 5, 2003. |
| A DVD of Handel's Rinaldo with David Daniels and Deborah York, with Region 2 encoding for Europe, the Middle East, and Japan, has been released at amazon.co.uk. |
| Carol Channing "recently announced her engagement to her childhood sweetheart, Harry Kullijian," reports playbill.com on March 7, 2003. |
| Christian Thielemann will conduct the Robert Carsen production of Capriccio, Richard Strauss's final opera, at the Palais Garnier in Paris starting June 14, 2004, with Renee Fleming as the Countess, Anne Sofie von Otter as Clairon, Rainer Trost as Flamand, Franz Hawlata as La Roche and Gerald Finley as Olivier, reports an Associated Press article at nola.com. |
| "Small pins inspired by Picasso's 'Dove of Peace' were visible on the lapels of Adrien Brody's midnight blue suit by Ermenegildo Zegna and director Pedro Almodovar's Armani one-button black tuxedo. Kathy Bates put her peace pin on the satin opera coat she wore over an Eric Gaskins cranberry silk gown."--from an Associated Press article about the Oscars broadcast, at sfgate.com. |
| "Certainly there is no one around today who does this repertory better and no one I would rather hear in it," wrote Anne Midgette in the New York Times of Sunday April 6, 2003, in her review of the Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez's new compact disc Una furtiva lagrima. |
| Hugues R. Gall of the Opéra National de Paris has announced in a communiqué on the opera company's home page that he will no longer advertise in Le Monde. He says that "le journal Le Monde n'aime (presque) aucun de nos spectacles . . .." |
| I attended a very pleasant performance of Handel’s oratorio Theodora by the Boston Baroque conducted by Martin Pearlman at Jordan Hall in Boston on the evening of Friday May 2, 2003. Before the performance began, Pearlman announced that the countertenor David Walker had a sinus infection but had agreed to sing nonetheless. At times Walker seemed to be singing carefully, and at times he left the stage during stretches when he had nothing to sing, but on the whole he had a very interesting and appealing voice. Except for the tenor Glenn Siebert who was somewhat boring and not quite up to the demands of the music, especially in fast passages, the other soloists were very good. Michael Dean, bass-baritone, was the most interesting singer as the baddie Valens who favored punishing the Christians who would not participate in the Romans’ rites. His enunciation was especially clear. Both Sharon Baker as Theodora and Mary Phillips as Irene also had pleasant voices. Sharon Baker also had very clear enunciation. I enjoyed the performance, but it could have been a little more dramatic. The soloists sat behind the orchestra, in front of the chorus, and soloists had to walk through or around the orchestra to get to the front of the stage to sing. There were three chairs in front of the orchestra where singers who had recently sung and were going to be singing again soon could park themselves temporarily. Sometimes there were minor traffic jams with singers returning too slowly to their seats behind the orchestra, and other singers waiting for them to arrive before departing toward the front. Sometimes a character was supposed to be singing to another character who was not near by. A better seating arrangement for the soloists could have been arranged. The performance did not flow, but had a pause after almost every aria. I was very happy with the orchestra and chorus. |
| Warner Classics has scheduled for August 2003 a release of a recording of Handel's Theodora with Les Arts Florissants conducted by William Christie. The set will be released on the Erato Disques label. |
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| May 9, 2003, 3:55 p.m. There is currently a fire at Quincy Market in Boston. It looks as if it may have begun in one of the areas where food vendors cook food. Here is a photo of some smoke. |
| On Saturday May 10, 2003, Carol Channing, 82, married her junior high school sweetheart Harry Kullijian, 83, reports an Associated Press article, as well as BBC News. |
| Susan Graham, an opera singer from Midland, Texas - the town where George W. Bush spent part of his youth - sang at the White House after the state dinner for the President of the Philippines on May 19, 2003. Brian Zeger accompanied her on the piano. The program consisted of "Voi che sapete" from Mozart's opera Le Nozze di Figaro, three songs of Ned Rorem ("I strolled across an open field," "Early in the morning," and "Driver, what street is it?"), two songs of Aaron Copland (settings of poems of Emily Dickinson "Why do they shut me out of heaven?" and "Heart, we will forget him"), three songs of George Gershwin ("Summertime" from the opera Porgy and Bess, "Someone to watch over me," and "Fascinating rhythm"), and concluded with the song "Bless This House," which, according to the Washington Times, is a 1927 Christian hymn by Helen Taylor and Mary Brahe. |
| "Glyndebourne Festival Opera is facing a new storm of dissent over a radical reworking [by Peter Sellars of the opera Idomeneo] of Mozart that likens the siege of Troy to the war against Iraq. The production, to be conducted by Sir Simon Rattle and designed by . . . Anish Kapoor, is said to have so enraged some corporate sponsors that they are considering withdrawing their support."--from an article at independent.co.uk |
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